The Sunday Mail
Peter Gambara
AGRICULTURE
The 10-Point Plan enunciated by his Excellency the President last week talks of “Revitalising Agriculture and the Agro-Processing value chain”. What does “revitalising agriculture” mean?
“Revitalise” is a verb or “doing” word, which is synonymous with several words that include refresh, rejuvenate, repair, restore, resuscitate, rekindle, stimulate, kick-start, strengthen, prop up, regenerate or to rise from a state of inactivity.
Revitalise implies the sector we are talking about used to have good days, which are now gone and, therefore, will need to be restored to that old status. The agricultural sector has, indeed, seen some good old days.
Agriculture has always been the backbone of Zimbabwe’s economy. It provides employment and income for 70-80 percent of the population, it supplies 60 percent of the raw materials required by industry and contributes 40 percent of total export earnings. It directly contributes 15-19 percent of the annual GDP. Tobacco has always been the largest export earner, contributing 23 percent of exports. Cotton, or the “white gold”, as it is often called, contributes 10-22 percent of agricultural exports.
Tobacco production in Zimbabwe declined from a peak of 236 million kilogrammes in the year 2000 to a low of just 55,4 million kg in 2006. However since then production has been on a steady increase, reaching a peak of 214 million kg in the 2013/14 marketing season and sales reached 198,5 million kg this year. This was grown by a record 87,203 growers.
Whilst the peak production of 236 million kg was achieved under predominantly white large scale commercial farmers before the advent of the second phase of the land reform programme, the recent increase has been achieved mainly by small-scale farmers. The recent revival of the tobacco sector has been mainly attributed to contract farming as more than 64 percent of the current crop is being grown under contract farming arrangements. Special arrangements like contract farming can contribute to a major revival in the growing of a crop.
Can we, therefore, revive the cotton, maize or soyabean sector through some contract farming arrangements? Some oil extracting companies have expressed the desire to contract farmers to grow soyabeans this season and this could be the kick-start that we need for the agricultural revival.
After independence in 1980, the Government’s agricultural policy was to support smallholders, and hence they became the largest suppliers of maize and cotton to formal markets within the first five years (1980-1985) of independence.
The introduction of an input credit scheme by cotton merchants and the deregulation of the marketing arrangements have contributed to a massive surge in cotton production.
Zimbabwe’s cotton is of high-quality because it is hand-picked, and has over the years secured a niche market.
Exports of cotton increased from 18 797 tonnes in 1993 to 92 769 tonnes in 1997. Production in the 2014/15 season declined to 135 000 tonnes from a high of 145 000 tonnes the previous year.
A lot of farmers have abandoned growing the crop because of persistent low prices. Revitalising the cotton sector, therefore, means rekindling/restoring the good old days when farmers could make money from cotton, hence the decision of Government to take over majority shareholding in Cottco Holdings through a debt equity swap deal. This could rejuvenate the cotton sector and restore it to its good old days. The horticulture industry in Zimbabwe is one of the sectors that we could use to resuscitate the agricultural sector. Farmers from Chinamhora, Mutoko, Honde Valley and many other areas are popular for producing horticultural crops. However due to lack of proper support, these farmers’ produce only finds its way to local markets like Mbare Musika.
In the 1990s, horticulture ranked sixth in the agricultural sector in terms of its contribution to foreign currency earnings after tobacco, cotton, cereal and grain, sugar, tea and coffee.
The main export market was EU, and the main exports were cut flower exports, vegetables, herbs, spices and citrus fruits. Total exports increased from 14 474 tonnes in 1990 and to 64 650 tonnes in 2000.
With the necessary support and training, our small-scale farmers can take over this role and provide some horticultural exports to Europe. We can restore our previous position as a major horticultural EU exporter through stimulating production on small-scale communal and A2 resettlement irrigation schemes.
One of the biggest strengths of the former white commercial farmers was their strongly kit farmer associations.
These farmers would meet on a monthly basis at country clubs to share information and ideas on how to improve their farming activities. At these meetings, the established farmers would offer to help the young and new farmers in the area. One farmer would offer his tractor, another, his planter and yet another would offer his boom spray to the young new farmers to help them kick-start their operations.
This kind of co-operation is lacking among the new land beneficiaries. Neighbouring farmers hardly know each other and those with lots of equipment never want to assist the next farmer who is struggling.
A lot of such farmers got this equipment through the RBZ’s mechanisation scheme and never paid a cent for it anyway. Rekindling or reviving these farmer associations among the new farmers could be the kick-start that we need to get these farmers to work together for the good of the nation.
Contractors and banks will definitely be more willing to work with groups of farmers in the same area than with individual farmers to minimise defaults.
The summer season got off to a start this week with tobacco farmers starting the transplanting of the irrigated crop on September 1.
However, the rest of the crops will only be planted with the onset of rains in November. It is not too late for Government to bring together manufacturing companies, banks, farmers unions, fertiliser and seed companies to work together to achieve a successful 2015/16 summer season.
When people sit down to talk, they are more likely to see areas of co-operation that they were not seeing before that.
Our agriculture can surely be revitalised through concerted efforts by all stakeholders working together for a common good.
Peter Gambara is an agricultural economist/consultant based in Harare
